The violinist, once talent-spotted by Yehudi Menuhin, has performed in such prestigious venues as the Royal Festival Hall and the Hermitage in St Petersburg.

But nothing compares to her experience in Bosnia, where she led the Mostar Sinfonietta surrounded by the unhealed wounds of war.

Her Balkans journey began six years ago, when she received an email from music promoter Ian Ritchie, who co-founded the Sinfonietta – a small chamber orchestra with 13 musicians.

"He'd told me about this orchestra and sent me an email asking if I would go there and help. It was totally out of the blue and I was both intrigued and apprehensive. I agreed even though I had no idea what was in store for me," she says.

Over the next four years Waterman made repeated visits to Bosnia as guest conductor of the multi-ethnic orchestra, as it attempted to bring the music of Mozart, Haydn and Tchaikovsky to people still struggling to come to terms with a bitter and senseless conflict.

The Bosnian war lasted three years and claimed nearly 100,000 lives, before it ended in 1995. The Leeds-born violinist describes the aftermath of this conflict in When Swan Lake Comes To Sarajevo. This, her first book, is a personal account of her experience working alongside fellow musicians in Mostar and Sarajevo and the power of music to help rebuild shattered lives.

"It's about the aftermath of war and how people deal with the trauma and the memories," she explains.

When Waterman first landed in Mostar in 2002 she was shocked by what she saw. "The minute you arrived you knew you were in a country that's been at war. Every third building was bombed out but people would say to me, 'this is much better than it was,' and it made you realise how devastating the conflict had been."

She says the psychological impact was less obvious.

"In many ways Bosnia seemed quite normal, people sat in coffee shops as they do anywhere. But then you realised there were no men in their 30s – a whole generation was missing.

"You then started noticing other things, like all the headstones in cemeteries were brand new, and everywhere you went there was noise. If you visited someone's house the TV was constantly switched on, because people couldn't bear silence."

Despite being surrounded by the scars of war, Waterman was inspired by the warmth and resilience of those she met. Particularly the orchestra, made up of Bosnian Muslims, Serbs and Croats, united by their love of music.

"Here was a group of people willing to work together, even though their parents had been fighting each other just a few years earlier, and that was very uplifting."

However, she admits that organising the concerts was a logistical nightmare.

"There were no oboists in Bosnia. They'd either been killed or had left the country, so we had to use flute and clarinet players instead, or find concertos that didn't require oboes, which isn't easy," she says.

"There were so many difficulties, it's amazing the concerts actually took place. It was little things that we take for granted, like being able to heat a building. I remember doing a concert and we discovered at the last minute that one poster was advertising an eight o'clock start and another was saying nine o'clock."

Eventually, in 2006, they managed to get two new oboe players from neighbouring Serbia. "That was incredible because this country was regarded as the enemy.

But there was no antagonism, and one of them became the life and soul of the orchestra and it was fantastic to see this wonderful atmosphere develop."

Waterman, the niece of Leeds International Pianoforte Competition co-founder Dame Fanny Waterman, was born into a musical family. Her brother and sisters all played instruments and her mother still teaches music in Leeds.

"I started playing the piano and violin when I was five. As children we were always surrounded by music, so it was a very natural progression for me."

Her virtuoso skill on the violin led to her performing in concerts and competitions, before she was invited to appear on one of Yehudi Menuhin's TV master classes. Menuhin was impressed and later invited her to perform at a Bach festival.

"He was one of the great violinists. I'd grown up listening to his music, so to be asked by him to perform at a concert was an incredible thrill."

Although a brilliantly gifted musician, comfortable performing in front of an audience, she was less confident when a publisher approached her to write a book about her time in Bosnia.

"My first reaction was there was no way I could do it. I'd written articles before but to write something about the aftermath of war, a topic already covered by authors, filled me with trepidation. But I wanted to do it," she says.

Waterman, who's among the guests at this year's Ilkley Literature Festival, hopes to return to Bosnia, which has found itself back in the limelight following the arrest of Radovan Karadzic. Many see this as a sign the country has moved on, but she is more cautious.

"It's not just about Milosevic and Karadzic. People told me they recognise war criminals passing them in the street every day, but they have to grit their teeth and get on with life. Imagine walking down the Headrow in Leeds and passing someone you know is a war criminal and not being able to do anything.

"Because the fighting is over, the outside world seems to think everything is all right, but the shadow of war is everywhere. People are still grieving, or trying not to, and remembering and trying to forget."

When Swan Lake Comes to Sarajevo by Ruth Waterman is published by Canterbury Press, £12.99.